Spittoon: We Spit So You Can Swallow

Would certainly add an interesting finale after the contents have been drained – I’m thinking of those late night hotel ‘tasting’ sessions at the DWCC for example. Some wine dinners I’ve been to could also have done with some enlivening from such an object. Available to buy online it costs £625…

Modelled after a musical horn’s coiled shape, the decanter is formed freely without the help of any molds, and proves extremely difficult to create. Requiring three master glassblowers’ efforts, the horn’s form is mouth blown with two openings on either end, the larger of which is to be used for both receiving and pouring wine. The decanter’s clear lead crystal colour is accented by a large regal golden yellow stripe outlined by two black lines following the contours of its curved silhouette.

In homage to the Riedel family’s central European heritage in Austria and Bohemia, the Horn decanter was in fact inspired by the iconic insignia that symbolizes the Austrian Post’s mail delivery system. Europe’s 18th and 19th century mail system utilized horse drawn carriages to deliver mail between cities, and to announce their arrival, mail carriers would play the Post Horn to notify the public. Influential musicians of this time period, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Austrian composer born in 1756, the same year of Riedel’s founding, also incorporated the horn into their music, and now modern day oenophiles and musicians alike can do the same, creating music by blowing into the Horn’s smaller opening.